The San Francisco 49ers suspended radio analyst Tim Ryan for one game after his comments about Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson having an advantage because of his dark skin.
During Ryan’s Monday appearance on KNBR, a Bay Area radio station and CNN affiliate, he said Jackson’s skin color helped him disguise a dark football when running fake handoffs during a recent game.
“He’s really good at that fake, Lamar Jackson, but when you consider his dark skin color with a dark football with a dark uniform, you could not see that thing. I mean you literally could not see when he was in and out of the mesh point.”
Ryan and the team apologized for the remarks on Wednesday.
“I regret my choice of words in trying to describe the conditions of the game,” Ryan said in a statement. “Lamar Jackson is an MVP-caliber player and I respect him greatly. I want to sincerely apologize to him and anyone else I offended.”
The 49ers added in a statement, “we are disappointed in Tim Ryan’s comments earlier this week and have suspended him for the upcoming game. We hold Tim to a high standard as a representative of our organization and he must be more thoughtful with his words.”
“Tim has expressed remorse in a public statement and has also done so with us privately. We know Tim as a man of high integrity and are confident he will grow and learn from this experience.”
“We have reached out to the Baltimore Ravens organization to extend our apologies and assure them the matter is not being taken lightly.”
The Ravens defeated the 49ers 20-17 in Baltimore this past Sunday. Jackson rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown, surpassing Michael Vick and Russell Wilson for the most games (4) with at least 100 rushing yards by a quarterback in a single season in NFL history. He also threw for a touchdown.
Ryan will miss the 49ers game against the New Orleans Saints this Sunday.
